Moreira appears to be out of running for seat

He was widely thought to be running to obtain immunity from prosecution for corruption

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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

It appears that former Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira won’t be taking a seat in the state Congress since his new party didn’t do so well in the polls June 4.

Moreira was at the top of the list of Youth Party candidates to be assigned a seat in the Chamber of Deputies under proportional representation. But the party fell short of winning 3% of the popular vote, the threshold for obtaining those seats and continuing as an official party. Instead, in the voting for the state Congress it received 2.87%.

But the party is challenging the rule, arguing that while the electoral code stipulates 3% the state constitution says a party needs just 2% of the vote for the proportional representation seats.

Those seats will be assigned Sunday, once the official tally of the votes is finished.

Moreira was governor of Coahuila from 2005 until 2011 and national president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for nine months until he resigned in 2011 after it was revealed that he ran up the state debt from about US $27 million to $2.8 billion. He has been widely accused of embezzling state funds but never charged.

He was also widely accused of trying to obtain a seat in Congress to obtain the protection against prosecution that is provided by the fuero, although earlier this year he proposed legislation to abolish the measure.

Moreira, whose brother Rubén is the current governor of the state, was expelled from the PRI in April for running as a candidate for another party.